Isaiah 17

An Oracle Concerning Damascus

17An ^soracle concerning ^tDamascus.

Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city

and will become a heap of ruins.

²The cities of ^uAroer are deserted;

they will be for flocks,

which will lie down, and ^vnone will make them afraid.

³The fortress will disappear from ^wEphraim,

and the kingdom from ^wDamascus;

and the remnant of Syria will be

like ^xthe glory of the children of Israel,

declares the Lord of hosts.

⁴And in that day ^xthe glory of Jacob will be brought low,

and ^ythe fat of his flesh will grow lean.

⁵And it shall be ^zas when the reaper gathers standing grain

and his arm harvests the ears,

and as when one gleans the ears of grain

in ^athe Valley of Rephaim.

^6bGleanings will be left in it,

as when an olive tree is beaten—

two or three berries

in the top of the highest bough,

four or five

on the branches of a fruit tree,

declares the Lord God of Israel.

^7cIn that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. ^8dHe will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the ^eAsherim or the altars of incense.

^9fIn that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.

¹⁰For ^gyou have forgotten the God of your salvation

and have not remembered the ^hRock of your refuge;

therefore, though you plant pleasant plants

and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,

¹¹though you make them grow¹ on the day that you plant them,

and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,

yet the harvest will flee away²

in a day of grief and incurable pain.

¹²Ah, ⁱthe thunder of many peoples;

they thunder like the thundering of the sea!

Ah, the roar of nations;

they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!

^13jThe nations roar like the roaring of many waters,

^kbut he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,

chased ^llike chaff on the mountains before the wind

and ^mwhirling dust before the storm.

¹⁴ⁿAt evening time, behold, terror!

Before morning, they are no more!

This is the portion of those who loot us,

and the lot of those who plunder us.